Kido Accident
by Aka Chuurippu
Summary: Renji is horrible at Kido, but the worst he'd ever do is cause minor explosions and hurt himself, right? Lemon. ChadxOc. 10 mths after 'De ja vu' 2 mnths after 'Darned if I do'. R&R please, don't care too much for the title any suggestions welcomed
1. Wait, hold up, what?

AN: Tite Kubo owns Bleach! Not me. He'd probably hate some of the things I do with his creations, the mushy gushy junk. Hotaru Kobayashi and her relatives are my own creations!

This story takes place 10 months after "De Ja Vu" and 2 months after "Just one night", if you haven't read those stories, please do so other wise some parts may not make a whole lot of sense!

* * *

Hotaru was wishing the journey would be over, her heart was racing like a frightened rabbit jacked up on steroids. She couldn't get his panicked voice out of her head, something about a kido accident. She had horrible visions of her fellow Lieutenant with an arm blasted off at the elbow, or half a leg sticking out of his forehead. 'God Renji, how many times have I told you not to practice your kido unless myself or Rukia are present? This is exactly why. One word spoken incorrectly during incantation completely alters the spell.'

Finally she saw the light at the end of the dark pathway, 'I'm almost there, just hang on!' With a leap she arrived in Urahara's underground training room. "Renji!" She shouted desperately.

"Hotaru, over here," Renji answered, his voice a tad less desperate than hers had been. In his arms, a dark tortie-coloured cat was held somewhat tensely, its short fur puffed in agitation but its eyes - 'Brown eyes on a cat? How strange,' thought Hotaru - remained fixated on her with an odd mix of desperation and relief.

Her attention went straight towards the feline in the lieutenant's arms.

"Aww, what a cute kitty!" Renji sweatdropped at the sight of his fellow lieutenant gushing over the feline like he wasn't even there, cooing and scratching the pet beneath its chin with an adoring smile on her face. And to make things even better, the cat was eating it all up with a loud purr while stretching its neck out to get more of the delightful attention. But he was glad that she had such a fondness for cats, and he sighed in relief at the thought. Perhaps it wouldn't be so horrible to tell her after all.

Hotaru blinked as if she was coming out of a daze induced by the cuteness of the animal, and blushed as she looked up at the 6th squad lieutenant. "So, what's the big kido accident that I had to rush all the way here for? And where did you get such a cutie?"

"Erm," Renji choked then cleared his throat, a free hand coming up to tug at the collar of his uniform as if it was the cause of his nervous pause. "Well Hotaru, you see... the thing is-"

"Hi Hotaru," the cat said. Hotaru's smile disappeared. The cat's voice sounded female, it wasn't Yoruichi, she was a bombay cat and had a deep male voice while in cat form.

"Who are you?" Hotaru asked, pushing a stray strand of red hair out of the way, concern over took her facial expression, this had to be the kido accident victim. Maybe Orihime, she thought.

"It's Yasutora," the cat replied. Yasutora? Wait, hold up, what? The kido accident was her childhood friend and one night lover, now in a cat's body? This is what had happened? Renji was going to pay for this.

Hotaru's face flushed to the same colour as her fire red hair, she also had a fiery temper to match her hair colour and her Zanpakuto abilities. She carefully and calmly took the cat from Renji and placed him on the ground.

"Hotaru, please let me explain... I..."

"ABARAI! YOU'RE DEAD!" She shrieked, unsheathing her Zanpakuto, she charged at him. Even though the situation wasn't funny to Yasutora before that moment, he was laughing now. To him it was funny watching six foot, two inch tall Lieutenant of the 6th division, who had stared down Arrancars and Espadas running for his life from a five foot nothing new Lieutenant of the 10th division, whom he himself had trained in Zanjutsu.

"GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE ABARAI!" Hotaru screamed at her fellow Lieutenant. "Or so help me, I will release Suzaku!"

Renji didn't think it was possible but he actually ran faster. The idea of a flaming immortal bird coming after him was more than enough to push his legs even further and harder.

"Rise up from the smouldering ashes and soar through the sky once more, Suzaku!" Hotaru used her summoning command for her Zanpakuto, it went from being an average looking sword to being golden with a flame shaped guard, a red hilt, and orange ribbon flowing from the hilt. Renji knew what would likely come next and his eyes grew wide with fear. 'Why the hell did I ever help her over come her fear of fire?' he thought bitterly to himself. Hotaru leapt up into the air she targeted the tall man, and then with the command "fly" released a bird shaped bolt of flame directed straight towards him.

"If that doesn't get you, I'll hado your ass for this!"

Renji sweat dropped at the thought, kido! Shit she was a kido master. "I called you so you could fix this, not kill me!" Renji pleaded.

"FIX IT! You think this is like making an adjustment to a leaky faucet? There's no kido spell to reverse what you've done. I'll have to invent one you idiot!"

"P-please... Hotaru, I'm sorry!"

"Not half as sorry as you will be. By the way, the longer the fire bird's in fight, the more intense her damage when she does make contact. Might as well stop running!"

Renji stopped in his tracks, and gulped, he managed to cast a low level repulsion spell which absorbed a portion of the damage done by her attack. "Hotaru, I'm sorry. I'll work with you to help you fix this."

"HELP! Renji Abarai you could've helped by listening to what I had told you! Then this wouldn't have happened. You friggin' moron! One word spoken incorrectly during incantation and this is the result. A human in cat form! No big deal if it's Yoruichi, she's a soul reaper and can transform herself out of it. Yasutora is just a human with special powers becaue of his exposure to the Hogyoku. How the HELL do you expect to help fix this? I'll need Tessai's help, or someone else equally skilled at Kido. You asshole! Next time, wait until myself or Rukia are present so this sort of thing does not happen! After having yoru ass burned I don't think you'll forget anytime soon," Hotaru was ranting now, she knew it, she didn't care. She didn't care that she had lost control, at least she had been able to channel her rage at the person responsible.

Yasutora sweat dropped, he had never seen Hotaru this angry before, and he'd known her since Okinawa. But calming her would have to wait, he had an important question that needed to be answered. "Uh, Guys?"

Hotaru turned her attention to the cat on the ground. "Tora?"

"Can anyone tell me... uhh."

"What is it my Tora?" Hotaru squatted down so she was almost nose to nose with the feline.

"Can anyone tell me how to use the litter box?"

Hotaru and Renji sweat dropped at the question. Oh crap! How exactly did cats use the litter box? I mean yeah sure, move some sand around and sit or squat, and let lose, but the actual mechanics... relax the hips? Hotaru could think of only one person who might know. "Yoruichi, we have a problem here," Hotaru shouted.

Yasutora sweat dropped even more severely. Oh god how humiliating! He felt like a little kid learning how to use the potty like a big boy.


	2. different people when they're together

Yoruichi easily took on the 'mama cat' role of showing Yasutora some of the basics of feline existence, most namely, litter box use. However when the soul reaper feline attempted to clean Yasutora's ears with her pink tongue, his fur stood on end and he leapt sideways away from her with a panicked voice he inquired, "What are you doing?"

"Cleaning the dirt from your ears," the black cat with a deep voice replied.

"Not happening. I appreciate your help with the litter box, but don't clean me."

"Why not? It's what feline friends and family members do for each other."

"But we're not natural cats. I get what you're trying to do but I'm still a human male... and that sort of thing... does... stuff..." his voice trailed off, he didn't think it was possible but his face was flushing under his fur. Not that he was actually attracted to Yoruichi, sure she was pretty enough, but he was still in love with Hotaru. From her reaction in the training room he was certain she still felt the same way. His mind travelled back to last Christmas Eve against his wishes, and suddenly the blushing under his fur became more intense as he realised that his feline form's behind was radiating heat_. 'Damn it!'_ he thought to himself. _'Okay um, baseball, uhh carnivore kingdom - whew!'_ The heat died down.

"Alright guys, dinner time," Tessai joyfully announced. Yoruichi transformed into human form to eat, Yasutora got a bit of a sad look on his face. "Tora, because we're not sure if your stomach is still more like your human stomach o-or-" Hotaru stumbled over her words, briefly clearing her throat with an uncomfortable expression on her face as if her next words left a bad taste in her mouth, "-or a cat's... stomach, for now we're giving you tuna until we do."

Hotaru stated, he could see the effort in her face as she held back tears, yet not a single one shone in her emerald eyes. You had to really know her at times to be able to tell what she was feeling. He wanted so much to wrap his strong human arms around her, and hold her close, but he didn't have those human arms right now. He walked up to her, and brushed his head up against her body, he allowed himself to purr as he did this. He remembered her saying once that the best part about cats was their soothing purrs. His actions had the opposite of the desired effect, she began sobbing and crying.

"Ru-ru, it's okay. You're very intelligent, you'll be able to figure something out," he reassured her.

"What if I can't? We don't even know if your life span has been altered by this. What if you're living in cat years now?" The average well cared for house cat lived to be 15 or 20 years old, Yasutora was already 17 in human years.

He placed a dark brown paw on her white as snow arm, and Hotaru could've sworn that if he was capable of smiling, he would've at that exact moment. "If it's any consolation at all Hotaru, I don't think I have arthritis."

Hotaru smiled at that bit of information, and the sparkle he was used to seeing in her eyes came back. No arthritis, so it was possible that he retained his human life span. She wiped away her tears, cursing herself for being so emotional, 'childlike' she called it.

"It's one of the best things about you. You're not afraid to show how you feel," Yasutora soothed. That evoked another pearly smile from her. No matter how horrible she felt, he always knew something that would help her feel better. Yasutora had been like that back when they were kids in Okinawa. Her father was Japanese and an Architect, but her mother was an American woman who had taken up residence in Japan due to a military position in Linguistics and radio communication. Hotaru had taken after her mother in looks and had been grateful when her subsequent siblings all took after her father. She wouldn't have to defend them against the constant teasing for looking different, after all she wasn't much of a fighter when she was alive.

Yasutora had understood what she went through being so pale in comparison to the other children, and she had always been short. He was darker than most of the other children, and he towered over their classmates. Two things that made him a target of bullies. They had first met back in daycare when they were two and a half years of age, she had been playing in a corner of the room alone, and had been lonely. He had seen that, and without a word he had come over to her, and started working with the building blocks with her. Catching her eye, the young Yasutora had let out a shy laugh, as she smiled warmly at him. Friendship at first meeting, over years that friendship changed.

When her Father was reassigned to Mexico of all places, she had been hard pressed to say goodbye to him, but they vowed to write each other at least once a month and stay in touch, there had been lengthly hugs, tears shed by each party, and vows of a friendship to last forever. The next year, Yasutora's parents had passed away suddenly in a car accident, he had written Hotaru in Mexico telling her that he'd be moving there to live with his Abuelo. Although they would be living in different parts of Mexico, her parents and Abuelo had arranged it so that the two friends could visit each other every summer and during school breaks. Written correspondence was still easiest and cheapest to maintain. Even when Yasutora had gone through is 'spoiled rotten jerk' phase, there was one person he would never raise his fist to, infact he'd raise his fist if anyone made any kind of remark about the colour of her hair, eyes, skin tone, or her Okinawan accent. He'd still tease her when they'd visit the beach though, she had never liked anything really cold, so when he had snuck up behind her with a bucket full of the ocean's water, her mother had seen a true Yasutora and Hotaru moment coming on and had snapped a photo of them as he did that. It was one of the pictures in his youtube video dedicated to her.

_~ Flashback ~_

_Ten-year-old Yasutora stealthly moved across the sand, making his way slyly up behind his bestfriend. She was in a red bathing suit, it was just a shade darker than her hair she was beant over helping her little sister with a sand castle. A beach vacation with their two families. He grinned at Michelle, the little raven-haired almond eyed 3-year-old girl infront of Hotaru. He gingerly moved one finger up to his lips indicating to Michelle to stay quiet. The little girl paid little attention to him. Without warning, he dumped the yellow bucket of water that he had been carrying all over Hotaru's head and back. A camera flash blinded both of them as Sarah Kobayashi snapped the photo at that exact moment. _

_Hotaru screeched in shock as the cold water poured over her. "YASUTORA!" She hollered, she had grabbed a beach ball and turned but he was already running in the opposite direction._

_"I'll be back Michelle," ten-year-old Hotaru assured her sister as she tore off after her friend. "Haha, you're so weird! We come to the beach and all you do is play in the sand. Are you afraid of the water?" he asked. _

_"No! it's just too cold," she replied whipping the beach ball at him. He bounced it back to her. "Really?_

_When the beach ball reached her, she bounced it back towards him. "Really. I'd rather be a bit too hot than too cold."_

_He smiled to himself, for a shrimp, she was fiesty, he wouldn't admit it but he had known for a couple of days before then that he had a crush on her. Whenever she was around his stomach tingled. "Why are you being mean to me Tora?" She suddenly asked, volleying the beach ball back to him. _

_"I am not!" _

_"You are!" the girl pouted. _

_'Okay, that's cute... wait what did I just think? Goodo thing I didn't say that,' he thought to himself looking at her, though his heart was swelling now with a tinge of regret. Damn those sad eyes she could so easily pull off. "Okay, Hotaru I'm sorry I dumped water on you," He admitted defeat smacking the beach ball once more towards her._

_She smiled and batted the beach ball back to him. "I love ya Tora. I wish I had a brother like you."_

_'A brother? Oh great, just what I was hoping to hear. Thanks Ru-ru. Why don't you just punch me before you say something like that? ow!' He thought bitterly to himself, his good mood fading a little, but he hid it with a grin in her direction as he replied, "Love ya too Shrimp."_

_~ End of flash back ~_

Hotaru was watching Yasutora's feline expression. He looked like he wanted to tell her something privately, she got down on all fours and brought her ear close to her mouth "of course, another good thing about you... you've got one very cute butt," he flirted. At this Hotaru blushed and began giggling a bit. Truth be told, she had hated her butt even when she was alive. It was the one part of her body, no matter what she did she couldn't lose the round shape, not to say she had a big butt by any means, it was well suited to the rest of her features. She just wished it was more toned than it was. Her legs, arms, and stomach were all toned, her breasts she felt were a bit on the small side, about a small b cup in size. Then she remembered back to the night they had been together;

_he slipped his hands over the red pyjama shirt, and unbuttoned the five ruby circles that clasped the fabric closed. She helped him remove it, when he looked her over; she blushed as deep red as her hair. _

_"What's wrong?" he asked._

_"They're kind of... small," she admitted, suddenly self-conscious. _

_He shook his head 'no' grasping them in his hands he whispered to her, "On you, they're perfect."_

She remembered that night with nostalgia, she knew the consequences of what they had done that night if anyone ever found out, yet at that moment she wished she could kiss his lips. She wished she could explore his mouth with her tongue... but he was a cat right now, and that would be wrong on far too many levels. So she opted for giving him an ear scratch instead. The pleasure rose inside Yasutora like the pressure before a volcanic eruption, without even trying this time, he purred loudly. Six set of eyes were staring at them as Urahara, Yoruichi, Jinta, Ururu, Tessai and Renji watched the sight before them. "Okay you two cupid struck idiots enough with the mushy stuff," Jinta spat. Hotaru turned to the scarlet haired boy and stuck her tongue out blowing a raspberry, and continued to spoil Yasutora with attention.

"Oh brother. Good job freeloader," Jinta accused Renji. "Now we've gotta deal with more fur in this place, not to mention that disgusting display of affection over there!"

Renji's face flushed. He had been told by Ichigo, Uryuu, and even Rukia before that there was something between Chad and Hotaru, he hadn't fully believed it until today. Seeing her reaction to what had happened to Chad, and his numerous efforts to comfort her, he couldn't deny it. A Shinigami was in love with a human, and it was a reciprocated feeling. His heart broke for the two young lovers... he knew that such a union was forbidden unless the human died or the Shinigami gave up their powers to exist as a human themselves. Their union was one that could never last as long as they remained as they were, him alive, and her having lived her life.

Then he thought back to the past Christmas Eve, when Chad had begged Renji to escort him to the Soul Society to surprise Hotaru with a visit... had they? No he pushed the idea out of his mind, for a ranking officer to perform such an act with a human would mean exile or execution for the Shinigami if they were discovered, not to mention anyone who knew about it would also be exiled. Even so, seeing the way they interacted with each other, he couldn't help but wonder if they actually had. He also came to a realisation about Hotaru at that moment, when she spoke to most people there was a degree of harshness to her voice since she made Lieutenant rank, he figured this had to do with the desire to be taken seriously despite her adolescent appearance, yet with Chad, her tone softened, in fact everything about her softened. She relaxed around him. Despite their friendship, she wasn't like that with Renji or anyone else, and was he the only one to take note that she was constantly pushing stray strands of hair out of her face when talking to Yasutora? Yet with anyone else, she didn't care how many strands got in her face. She wanted her vision clear when she spoke with him. She did love Chad. Thinking back on how different Chad had been between her departure from the human world in early May to his visit to the Soul Society in December, he came to the conclusion the feelings were mutual between them. Chad wasn't one to show emotions of any kind unless someone was in danger, but with Hotaru he 'came out of his shell' as Uryuu had once said. Renji sighed heavily and held his head in his hands, his sole though in his mind at that time was _'what have I done?'_


	3. Calming Hotaru

After dinner Ichigo arrived along with Uryuu, both of whom were stunned by what happened to Chad, but the idea of the seasoned soul reaper being intimidated, attacked, and burned by a freshman soul reaper's Zanpakuto was enough to send both of them into hysterical fits of laughter. "I wish ... I could've seen th-that one Renji!" Ichigo managed to choke out in between his laughing fits.

"It hurt like hell," Renji replied, his face was flush with anger at the lack of sympathy that he got from his two supposed 'friends'.

After the substitute soul reaper and Quincy had calmed down a bit they sat down around the table with their friends. Strategically Renji and Hotaru were at opposite ends of the table. If looks could kill, Renji would've been dead about a thousand times over within the first hour of conversation regarding the situation. After catching the grimacing look on Hotaru's face, Uryuu cleared his throat pushing his glasses up on his nose, he quipped, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Just ask Renji."

Chad chuckled a bit at that remark. Hotaru just shot Uryuu an annoyed look. "What's bothering you so much Hotaru?"

"The full mechanics behind this is going to determine how difficult it will be to restore Yasutora's original form. First of all, Abarai, do you remember what you said before Yasutora was no longer human?"

"Of course, it was the healing spell, Kasuru."

Urahara , Tessai and Yoruichi sweat dropped at Renji's statement. Hotaru's eyes were wide and her mouth was gaping open.

"Kasuru? You said Kasuru? Well no wonder he changed form, ugh!" she rubbed her temples with her thumb and index fingers. Renji Abarai's reckless disregard and disrespect for the power that Kido possessed was giving her a massive headache.

"The healing spell for a group of up to five people is 'Keikatsu'. 'Kasuru' is the transformation order and literally means 'to transform'," Tessai explained. Ichigo and Uryuu didn't know if they should laugh or hit Renji for such an obvious mistake. Didn't he speak Japanese? Ichigo decided he'd punch Renji, while Uryuu slapped the back of Renji's head.

Hotaru lunged across the table at her fellow Lieutenant. Instantly she had five other people on top of her, firmly holding her down. "Calm down Hotaru, I can understand you being upset, but killing Renji won't make Chad human again," Yoruichi reasoned.

Hotaru stopped struggling against them, realisation showing in her facial expression. A single tear fell from her left eye, and rolled down her cheek. "Yeah, you're right," she admitted. Still the rage inside, she didn't know how else to channel the anguish and fury she felt.

"In a way though, we are lucky. Due to his spiritual pressure he was somewhat protected. Generally speaking that sort of spell can revert you as far back as being a pool of primordial ooze. I just have one question, why were you attempting a healing spell?" Urahara inquired.

"We were training, and Zabimaru cut his arm up a bit," Renji explained.

Tessai cleared his throat, "When did I become chopped liver? Next time just come to me."

"Right," Renji blushed.

Hotaru wanted to say something, but she realised if she did it would all come out a jumbled incoherent mass of words that by any other tongue would be unpronounceable. Instead she grabbed the basketball that Yoruichi had gotten her the last time she was in the world of the living and headed out to the back of the shop, to the basketball hoop that had been set up when she and Renji had arrived together on a mission without saying a word.

The rest sat there looking dumb founded, and Yasutora sweat dropped. He knew she was bottling it up inside, he gave Ichigo a pleading look. No matter how much he wanted to comfort her right now, he knew that seeing him in his current state was upsetting to her, and the more he tried, the worse it became.

Ichigo seeing the sad look in the cat's brown eyes sighed. He rose to his feet, grabbed his coat, and left to follow Hotaru out back. Exiting the shop, he heard the basketball slapping against the pavement as she dribbled.

Finding her, he observed her movements for a while. Hotaru wasn't wearing a coat, but she had a heavy yellow cloak draped over herself, it looked pretty warm, still he worried about her getting chilled. It was February, there wasn't any ice or snow on the ground, but it was still cold out.

She was just doing the dribbling and foot work, weaving the basketball between her legs, then alternating hands as she bounced the ball under one leg. Memories of playing with Yasutora when they were children flashed in her mind as she dribbled. It wasn't long before the tears were flowing down her face freely, she made no effort to hide them.

"Hey," Ichigo called to her.

Her head shot up and looked at him, she shamefully looked away quickly, "Leave me alone Ichigo."

"No. You're upset, talk to me."

"No. Trust me you don't want to know."

"If I didn't want to know I wouldn't ask."

"You would ask if you didn't know what you were asking. Just drop it," she retorted. She wasn't about to tell him what had transpired that Christmas, nor was she about to tell him that she could tell the sexual tension between herself and Yasutora, even though he was currently in cat's body, was suffocating both of them. She wasn't about to reveal something that could get Ichigo jailed in the Soul Society upon his death for knowing in life. She was protecting him, he just didn't know it.

Just how perverted was she? Her best friend, who would love to be her official boyfriend, was in a cat's body, and still she had thoughts of wrapping her lips tightly around his human dick! _'Damn you Hotaru, knock it off!' _She scolded herself as she made a layup. She was hoping the physical activity would work out some of the extra energy she had building inside and elevate her affliction so she could get some sleep that night and focus on reversing Renji's screw up tomorrow. Though, to invent a spell with accuracy and potency took time. Sometimes months or years, did he have that long to wait? A sob swelled in her throat at the thought, and she choked it down, firing the basketball at the net. It swooped in easily, but Ichigo caught it before it dropped back to her.

She made a grab for it, he held it up over both of their heads. "You get it back when you talk to me," he bargained.

"No deal," she replied, delivering a firm punch to his stomach, causing him to double over and release the captive basketball.

"shit... forgot you can hit."

"Course I can. Tora taught me when we were young," Hotaru replied. Ichigo scoffed, that would explain the power behind her punch. Even without the right arm of the giant, Chad's punches could knock any normal human out with ease.

"Why do you call him 'Tora'?" Ichigo asked.

"Why do you call him Chad?" She countered his question with a question that had nagged at her for almost a full year.

"When we first met I thought his name was Chado, I thought 'Chad' sounded cool, so I kept calling him that even after he corrected me," Ichigo explained.

"His name is Yasutora... Tora means tiger. I like cats," Hotaru replied answering his question.

"Never heard you calling him that before," Ichigo stated an observation.

Hotaru stopped dribbling the basketball and moving around, she held the ball close to herself and looked down at the little bumps on the orange surface. "I started calling him that more freely after Christmas. I used to call him Tora when we were kids... if I was upset, or trying to get him to open up about something that was troubling him," she confessed.

"What happened during Christmas?" Ichigo asked, he knew Chad had visited the soul society while he had gone on a ski trip during Christmas with his family, under threat of cooking for himself for a year if he didn't.

"Nothing that concerns you," Hotaru shot at him, as she went back to dribbling.

"Did you have sex?"

The basketball smacked him forcefully in the face, and blood began to gush from his nose. "Ow! That fucking hurt!"

"You deserve worse for asking such a personal question," she growled with venom in her voice as she walked past him, collected the basketball and walked back into Urahara's shop.

Ichigo was left standing at the back of the shop, leaning his head forward and cursing under his breath. He wasn't sure, but it felt like his nose was broken, it hurt whenever he tried to pinch his nose shut to try to stop the bleeding. He was certain he had his answer though. Chad was no longer a virgin, neither was Hotaru.

Tessai was suddenly next to him, placing a large hand inches from Ichigo's face he muttered an incantation. Then a green light began to glow, Ichigo had come to know this light to be the healing kido spell. The blood flow stopped, and the pain in his face began to subside. "Thanks Tessai," he expressed his gratitude.

"Don't ask women about sex," Tessai suggested.

"No kidding!"

Later that night, while the others were sleeping, Yasutora awoke to a noise in Hotaru's room. His ears twitched, trying to tune into it better. It sounded like a noise she'd make while struggling with something physical, like she was in physical pain, or straining to move a heavy object.

He quickly got up from his spot on the book shelf and ran towards her door. Entering the room, he found that her brow as furrowed, she was gritting her teeth, and she was clutching the sheets tightly in her fists. Was she having a nightmare?

Uncertain of what else he could do, he walked up to her head, rubbing his face against hers, purring as he did this. Her fists relaxed a little, then he moved down to her hands, kissing them with his rough pink tongue. Her face began to relax, and soften. Then he resolved to lay on her chest, curled up into a ball, and purr through the night_. I love you Hotaru. I'm sorry this is causing you so much pain. I can't say I'd be any different if this had happened to you,_ he thought quietly to himself. One of her hands found his back, and gently rested on him. He closed his eyes, and fell asleep on her, vowing not to leave her for anything until morning's first light.


	4. Homemade cookies with cream

Hotaru leaned back in the desk chair, stretching her arms, she had been pouring over Kido texts for the past six hours. 'God, inventing a spell is harder than it sounds,' she thought to herself rubbing her eyes, course if she didn't need to invent the spell to do one specific task, inventing a spell wouldn't be so difficult. Currently she was battling a war with fatigue that threatened to win her over. Sighing she rose from her seat and headed to the kitchen thinking coffee would help.

Today for the first time in almost a year, she was in her gigai. She had forgotten what it was like to have piercings, she thought with a smile on her face, until she remembered who had paid to get her the piercings. She almost broke the container of coffee grinds at the memory.

Her first time in the land of the living had been for a mission that Renji Abarai had requested her assistance with, at the time he had been the only one she had confided to about her ability to remember her past life as a human. What had triggered the memory was the Ryoka entering the Seireitei when Rukia was going to be executed. She remembered being relieved that the humans had been able to save her, secretly she had always admired Rukia and aspired to be as good as she was. Hotaru's mission to the land of the living with Renji had resulted in two things, one she had gotten to meet Rukia Kuchiki and become her friend, the second was that she remembered a whole lot more about her past life.

Before the mission she could only remember the time when she had visited Yasutora at his school for his birthday one year (she had been ill with bronchitis the previous week so her parents didn't force her to go to school that day and had said that if she took her mother's cell phone with her and called to check in every three hours until she was at Senor de la Rosa's she could travel to see Yasutora by herself, she had been ten years old). That day a couple of bullies at his school had seen her hacking and wheezing, still not fully recovered from the bronchitis, and had taken the inhaler the emergency room doctor had given her. She had felt that she was close to death when Yasutora had shown up almost out of nowhere. He had slugged the guy who had her inhaler at the time, and then returning it to her, kept a firm grip on her arm while she recovered and got her breathing back under control. He hadn't said anything, but she had known that he was afraid of her collapsing from the lack of oxygen she had just endured. They were kids back then, unable to see each other as frequently as they had when they were younger, yet still their bond had been strong.

She found out that summer that he had actually cut detention to help her. He had gotten into a fight earlier that day and was supposed to write lines like "an eye for an eye leaves the world blind". However when he had heard her coughing, and heard the guys teasing about some kind of Japanese accent, he had known who was likely being teased and decided to risk being suspended to help her.

Coming back to the present, she filled the white mug with the dark steaming fluid, adding a single sugar cube and a little bit of milk. She looked at her attire, a red shirt and blue jeans, both hand made by Uryuu Ishida from her last visit. When she had accepted the mission she had known little about herself, including her own birthday and that she liked cats. Yasutora had remembered everything about her. From her fondness of cats to her hatred of floral print clothes. He also remembered she liked striped shirts, she hated the colour pink, and if she ever did wear a dress it had to be a long skirted sundress, nothing else would do.

She shook her head, causing her pony tail to sway from side to side as she moved. Coffee in hand she headed back to the room she had been studying in and resumed the article she had been reading. Her lips moved slightly as she read the line: Reversal spells must be administered within a fortnight, if this cannot be achieved the possibility of a full reversal of the transformation kido becomes less likely.

Were her eyes playing tricks on her? She blinked and reread the same line. Nope, there it was in black and white._ Shit! Abarai if I can get him through this you are going to owe me big time. Forget piercings I want six tattoos for my work here in keeping your precious position in the soul society safe! You stupid pineapple brain, _she thought to herself. Of course, that was assuming she didn't kill Renji within that fortnight, the idea was very tempting. She looked over at the calendar, February second, the accident had occurred on February first. She had until Valentine's Day to successfully invent and use a full reversal spell otherwise Yasutora could end up with cat features for the rest of his life.

Something small and furry leapt up onto her desk, looking over she caught the eye of the dark tortie-coloured Yasutora Sado. "Hey Tora," she greeted with a smile.

"Are you feeling better today?" He asked, sitting next to her, his paws tucked close to his body.

She was a little taken back at his question but managed a nod with explaining, "I think it was just the shock of the whole situation. All Renji had told me was that it was a kido accident. Knowing his skill with Hado spells, I thought someone's limb had been blasted off. I wasn't expecting–" her voice trailed off as if the next part was still too painful to acknowledge vocally. She forced a smile to her face and asked him what it was like to be a cat, would he recommend it?

The question evoked a laugh from the feline as he explained that the world was quite different from his new level. For once he had to look sky wards to look people in the eye. Smells were intensified for him by at least four times, his eye sight was sharper, and his sense of hearing was better. Over all, it wasn't so bad, just as long as he could avoid getting hairballs. Both of them chuckled at that idea.

"So I'm curious, if you can smell things four times more than humans what do I smell like?" She asked, out stretching her hand to him. He sniffed her palm for a few seconds, before licking her hand profusely.

"I guess I must smell good," she joked.

"Hmm like homemade cookies with cream," he replied, licking his lips.

"That would be a yummy scent," she agreed.

Then another thought dawned on her, "What does Renji smell like to you?"

She didn't think it possible, but he actually scrunched up his feline face and replied "horse radish!"

They were silent for a bit, then her rumbling stomach demanded her attention. "Hmm... You hungry too Tora?"

"A bit," he sighed heavily.

"What is it?"

"I miss tomatoes, and I'm getting sick of tuna," he admitted.

"Hmm... I'll make a sandwich, put a bit of tomato on it, and if you can handle a bit of that, we'll look into getting you onto human food alright?"

The cat nodded in response, his eyes were gleaming happily. She noticed that whenever she looked at him these days, he had that happy glow about him. _He does love me, but I just can't see this working. It's too dangerous,_ she thought to herself the idea stabbing at her heart like a hundred knives.

At best, she Renji, Rukia and Captain Hitsugaya, the three Soul Reapers who knew she had retained her memories, would be exiled. At worse, the three who knew her secrets would either be imprisoned for the remainder of their days, or executed for not seeking out 'proper treatment' for her, which would've included a full memory wipe and expulsion from the Academy.

She was back in the kitchen of Urahara's shop, making herself a ham sandwich, bit of lettuce, some cucumber, of course here had to be tomato, she had promised him that. She put a bit of mayonnaise on one side of the bread, and after slicing the sandwich in halves she returned to the study, Yasutora was curled up on the text book she had been reading. "Boy, when you want attention," she jested, placing the plate next to the text book. Chad looked up at her and stretched out a paw, which she lightly wrapped a hand around. "I love you," he said.

Hotaru was about to reply when a child's scream interrupted them, grabbing her soul candy she dashed to the front of the store, coming to a full stop when she saw what was going on in the front lot. Ururu had somehow become the victim of a sneak attack, and was now struggling against a Hollow's death grip hold on her. The hollow was bringing her up to his mouth, ready to devour her soul. Hotaru reacted quickly with the only thing she could think to do in that situation.

"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat! Bakudo 9, Geki!" her voice shouted. A red light engulfed the hollow, paralyzing it. It bought her time, she popped the soul candy into her mouth and went into her soul reaper form. Within seconds she had drawn Suzaku. Flying into the air, she sliced off the Hollow's arm, which held Ururu captive, and handed the little girl over to mod soul inhabiting Gigai. "Guard her with your life," she ordered. The mod soul nodded taking the child into her arms and grasping onto her for all she was worth. Yasutora's fur was standing on end, and he was growling at the hollow. Almost as if, even in a cat's body, he was challenging it to try something with him there.

"Who do you think you are?" The hollow groaned at Hotaru.

"Tenth division Lieutenant Hotaru Kobayashi, but if that's too much for you to handle, just call me 'nightmare'," Hotaru replied, pointing her Zanpakuto at the hollow before her. It was an ugly one from what she saw, it had a normal hollow mask, but it was covered in raised flesh, reminding Hotaru of a toad's back, while its feet resembled bird talons. Its hands and arms were one and the same, like octopus tendrils.

The bakudo spell wore off, and it headed towards them. "Rise up from the smouldering ashes and soar once more, Suzaku!" Hotaru ordered her Zanpakuto, as it finished its shikai form transformation, She raised the blade above her head and quickly brought the blade back down. As she did this action a crescent moon shaped bolt of fire flew from the blade, striking the hollow with ease, splitting its mask and entire body with one attack.

"Well that was weak," she commented. She muttered something to Suzaku, which returned to its unreleased form so she could sheath the Zanpakuto. Renji appeared at the back of the shop, having just emerged from the training round as Hotaru returned to her gigai.

"Hotaru, are you alright? What happened?"

"I'm fine Pineapple head. Ururu was about to become hollow food. It's over now," Hotaru replied not looking the man she had once considered a friend in the eye.

"Hotaru, how long are you going to be angry at me?" Renji asked, sincerity in his voice.

Hotaru shook her head, "I don't know. I do know I won't be angry forever... eventually I'll get over this. Right now I have to focus on creating a spell that will make Yasutora human again. Once that's done, I don't know how long I'll be angry for. But in truth Abarai, I'm not exactly angry at this point. I'm scared out of my mind."

Renji moved to place a hand on her shoulder, and she quickly retreated away from him. "Don't even think about it," she hissed. Renji retracted his hand, she walked by the redhaired tattooed man, and sat at the desk, Yasutora was up on the desk next to her, munching away happily at the tomato on her sandwich. After their lunch, she observed the feline for a while, there didn't appear to be any sign of stomach upset. "I guess you still have a human's stomach," she sighed with relief.

At least there were a few things about him that were still human. Yasutora pounced into her lap, then began kneading his toes into her lap. After a bit, he curled up into a ball, and fell asleep. Hotaru smiled at the brown and tawny tortie patterened cat who had snuggled into her. No matter if he was a cat, or a human, he always warmed her heart.


	5. Illegal Kido

Hotaru was mostly work and little play. When she did play it was normally with Yasutora, tossing a ball for him to chase, which he'd promptly return to her, or she'd pull a string for him to attack. They had discovered that his stomach was still more like a human's than a cat's, there for his normal diet of human food was resumed. The only difference was he had to eat smaller amounts.

Everything was going not too badly, until one day when he was out for a walk with Hotaru and Ichigo, a woman's panicked voice found the ears of the three friends who ran to investigate. She was being accosted by three men, one of them had already cut away the buttons on her blouse while the other two held the woman's arms behind her.

Before either Hotaru or Ichigo could stop him, Chad had charged at the knife wielding assailant, completely forgetting that he was in cat form, until he went to punch the scum. He had brought his paw up, his claws had emerged, and he swiped the one attacker's leg, causing it to bleed. "Stupid mongrel cat!" the man shouted as he kicked Yasutora's ribcage, sending the feline flying into the air.

"BASTARD!" Ichigo yelled at him.

Hotaru reacted quickly jumping up, she caught Yasutora in her arms, and landing firmly on her feet.

"What kind of pathetic slime ball attacks a cat never mind a woman?" Hotaru demanded of them.

Yasutora was groaning in her arms, in his desire to protect a human, had had forgotten for a split second that he, himself was currently not human. He wasn't sure, but he thought something was broken, breathing was a bit difficult. "Tora, are you okay?" Ichigo asked. They had agreed to call him 'Tora' in public to create the illusion that he was infact a cat.

Yasutora had managed a look that said 'do I look okay?'

Ichigo glared at the men before him, and growled a "no one attacks that cat and gets away with it!" With that, he lunged at them, quickly beating up the three would be rapists while Hotaru ducked into a nearby ally and used a healing Kido on Yasutora.

"What were you thinking Tora?" she asked as she healed him.

"I thought I could fight them," he revealed. Her eyes lightened. No matter what form he was in, he was still the same Yasutora who couldn't stand to see anyone pushed around. She sighed, and that was one of the things that had made her fall for him in the first place.

Before Hotaru knew it, a week had already passed, she only had one more week to work with, so far the incantation went, "Whiskers and fur return to the hair and flesh of man. Four legged prance replaced with the ability to walk on feet of only two. Allow the sprouting of arms, the restore of height, rebirth of strength. Bakudo 102, Kasuru!" However attempting this on the volunteering test subject Yoruichi, was proving to be disheartening. On the first attempt, they had turned her into an Orangutan, she was spared Chad's fate of dependency by her shape shifting ability.

Now, Hotaru flopped onto the mattress, her face buried in the pillow as she let out a frustrated groan. Time was running out, and so far the best they can do is shape shift him into an orange ape! She felt a familiar prance of four paws on her back, as the feline began kneading out the knots of tensed muscles that had formed. "Tora, you sweetie," she breathed.

"Don't worry so much Hotaru," He pleaded to her.

Her brow furrowed, how could she not worry? Her best friend, the only person she had any romantic feelings for in her life, was a cat! And if she couldn't figure something out in the next week, there was no guarantee of being able to switch him back. Then she had an idea. Perhaps they were over wording the spell incantation. "Tora, climb off for a moment, I want to try something," she requested.

The feline complied, leaping down to the floor while voicing his own exasperation. She was over working herself and that made him worry. She quickly turned on her desk lamp and began pouring over ancient anthropology texts. "Maybe this will work," she uttered as she ran out from the room.

"Yoruichi!"

The purple haired woman was just reverting out of the wolf form that Tessai had put her in and cringed at the sound Hotaru's excited voice. "Yoruichi, I'm certain I've got it! Are you up for one more test?"

Yoruichi, who still had the wolf's teeth in her mouth attempted to reply but the words were incoherent to Hotaru's ears. Hotaru sweat dropped at the noises escaping from Yoruichi's mouth before the purple haired woman simply nodded in reply as she transformed herself into her cat form.

Taking out her note book, Hotaru began to recite the new incantation and spell, "Original form; Homo Sapien, current form; Felis Catus. Original form emerge from the feline, replace with the original design. Bakudo 103, Kasuru!"

A swirl of green and purple light emerged from Hotaru's hand engulfing Yoruichi, who began to glow, the cat form was fading and her human form emerged. She was stark naked, but she was human once more.

"Looks like it works," Yoruichi grinned. Hotaru looked at Yoruichi before her, and quickly shielded her face with the note book.

"Uh, Yoruichi, I know we're both girls but could you cover up?" Hotaru begged, her eyes were clenched shut not wanting to see another woman as nude as the day she entered the world. Yoruichi laughed as she wrapped a nearby blanket around herself, "better?"

Hotaru chanced a glance over the notebook, "yes, much. Thank you Yoruichi!" She exclaimed. Hotaru then dashed to the bathroom, causing others to wonder what she was doing. In there, she debated on grabbing a bath towel, only to realise that if she did that, Yasutora would be without clothes until one of them could go to his apartment and obtain something for him to wear. Then she felt around her pockets... yes, she still had the key to his apartment. Abandoning the idea of a bath towel, she rushed back to her room. "Tora! Tora, it worked! Let's get you home and back to your proper form," the excited girl blabbered. Yasutora let out an involuntary 'meow' as she picked the feline up in her arms and raced from the candy shop, making sure to grab her warm yellow cloak as she exited the store.

Hotaru was certain she had never ran so fast in her life, the cat in her arms was clinging to her shirt and arms, desperately trying to keep from falling, the cloak flowed behind her as she sped down the streets of Karakura.

"Hotaru slow down, it's not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon," Yasutora reasoned with her. He was worried that because she wasn't wearing winter boots and there was some ice on the ground, she'd fall if she didn't slow her pace.

Hotaru's pace slowed a bit, the cat in her arms was right, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Soon, he'd be back to his usual form. They walked in silence the rest of the way, the cat nestled next to her. "are you cold?" she asked a little alarmed. Cats having a natural fur coat, she hadn't thought of that possibility.

"A little," he admitted.

She carefully pulled a section of her cloak over him, and clutched him closer to her chest hoping the heat from her gigai would help warm him a bit. "Better?"

"Yeah."

Soon they arrived at his apartment, the same apartment she had lived in for two months during her first assignment to the land of the living, not even a full year ago. It had only been ten months. Unlocking the door with her own key, she entered the house, Yasutora leapt out of her arms and into his apartment. Sneezing he commented, "I have to dust and vacuum this place."

Hotaru giggled at this as she closed the door behind them. They looked at each other for a moment, his chocolate eyes meeting her emerald orbs. She quietly asked him, "are you ready?"

He nodded, she opened up her note book then hesitated, "Tora you'll likely be naked when you revert back to being human-" she braced herself before asking the next question, as if she were asking a stranger something surprisingly intimate. "Do you want me to gather some clothes for you before we begin?"

Chad laughed at this for a moment before he replied, "Hotaru, it's nothing you haven't seen before."

Hotaru nodded in acknowledgement, she then raised one hand before the tortie-coloured feline and began the new reversal spell, "Original form; Homo Sapien, current form; Felis Catus. Original form emerge from the feline, replace with the original design. Bakudo 103, Kasuru!"

For the second time that day, green and purple light swirled out from Hotaru's hand, this time engulfing the cat before her. As the swirls around the cat's body intensified in colour and speed, the body began to undergo a metamorphosis. The back arched and then straightened until the cat stood erect on its hind feet, next the front and hind legs began to lengthen and change into arms with hands, and legs with feet. The tail became absorbed into the spine, the ears returned to being human ears on the side of his head, the fur continued to dissolve on most of his body, retreating to it's original origin on the top of his head.

Within minutes, the cat was no longer a cat. The cat became its original form, a 6 foot 6 inch tall, tan skinned, chocolate haired, brown eyed muscular half-Mexican man. As she had predicted he was nude, and it was taking everything she had for her to not look at his intimate regions, still it was him. The real him.

Hotaru squealed with delight as she jumped excitedly on the spot. "It worked! Oh my god, I actually invented a reverse transformation kido!"

Yasutora smiled at her, "I knew you could."

Hotaru smiled shyly at his confidence in her, it wasn't misplaced but it felt strange to have someone believe in her so much that they'd entrust her with something as complex as inventing a specific kido spell to restore their normal form. A light blush formed on her cheeks as she thought about that, and the pride that he was evident in his voice as he had spoken those words.

"What? You forgot what I look like?" he joked as he watched her face flush under his gaze.

"Shut up. Put some clothes on would you? Right now you're like Dr. Manhattan," Hotaru shot back playfully.

"Who?"

"Watchmen?"

"What about watchmen?"

Hotaru cocked an eyebrow at him, he seriously hadn't heard of that movie? She had heard of it and she'd only been in the land of the living for five weeks in the past year!

"We're renting it before I go back to the Soul Society," she informed him.

"Okay. Are you serious about the clothes?"

Hotaru felt her face heat up even more, she almost felt like she had a fever. "Why wouldn't I be serious?"

Yasutora shrugged, and turned to enter his bedroom. Luckily having paid the rent and all of his utility bills for the month before the Kido accident, everything still worked. Although his groceries were probably rotting in the fridge, he'd have to throw them out and get some more. What a waste of money.

He pulled on some boxers he found in his dresser drawer, and turned to the closet to find some other clothes, he stopped in his tracks when he looked at the doorway which was next to his closest. Waiting for him to turn around, was Hotaru, her usual pony tail was gone and her scarlet hair flowed down to just below her shoulders, that look on her face is what got him the most. It wasn't so much her face, as it was her eyes, her pupils were dilated making her eyes appear to be darker than they normally would be. Her lips were slightly parted, her breathing was heavier than usual. "No you're right. I'm not sure about the clothes. I just didn't want to say anything," she admitted to him.

"What changed your mind?"

"I realised when I return to the Soul Society they'll likely send me into exile. I invented a Kido spell without a permit to do so, there for I broke one of their laws. It isn't serious enough to warrant a death penalty, but it is enough to force me into existence in the land of the living."

"Hotaru..." his throat closed up after saying her name. She had risked her career as a soul reaper, she had risked being rejected by the soul society, she had risked everything to help him. Hotaru simply smiled at him when he said her name, the way the light in his room shone, he noticed for the first time she was wearing lip gloss, and wondered if it was flavoured.

"So I figure, if I'm going to be exiled for breaking their laws, I might as well dive in head first," she concluded seductively.

"Hotaru, I thought-" he gulped and took a few deep breaths to steady himself. He wasn't too sure how to say what was on his mind, but he had to ask, "I thought what happened in the soul society, was a one time thing?"

Hotaru nodded as her eyes met his for the second time that night, "I thought it was. When I was last in this world, I was distracted during one of my training sessions with Ichigo. When I told him what was bothering me, he told me something that I think applies to this whole situation. 'When you're destined to be something, life finds a way'. The more I think about it, the more I realise he's right. If I think about it long enough I start thinking, maybe I was always destined to be your girl."

Yasutora's eyes widened, was she serious? "If you're teasing me Hotaru, I'll never forgive you," he warned.

Hotaru's face seemed to light up, her smile broadened when she responded, "then I guess it's a good thing I'm not teasing. If you'll have me as your girlfriend, that is."

Chad couldn't restrain himself anymore, with that last sentence, he lost what little control he had left and gave into temptation, he leant down to her and captured her lips with his own. Her lip gloss tasted like peaches, what about her mouth? He glided his tongue along her lips requesting entrance which she readily granted as she placed one hand at the nape of his neck, her other hand rested on his cheek.

Yasutora's tongue explored her mouth, she still tasted like pomegranates, suddenly Hotaru pulled away from him, a sheepish look on her face. He gave her an inquiring look, to which she answered, "cat food."

He blushed at his forgetfulness, and resolved to kissing her swiftly on her forehead before heading into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

* * *

AN: So at this point in time of the story (kind of an odd place to put it, I know), I'd like to give a shout out and a thank you to the Beta Reader of this story, Dyanasty Artemis! Take a bow!


	6. Admissions

Yasutora soon returned from the washroom having brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth with mouthwash. Finding Hotaru sitting on his bed, he lowered himself down beside her, one bare muscular arm wrapped around her small frame before pulling her closer to his body. He had wanted to just hold her for months now. She grabbed his free arm and placed it around herself, looking up at him, her smile radiated joy. He lowered his head gently until his chin rested on the top of her head, and he closed his eyes, just getting lost in the embrace. She pressed herself against him, her respiration deepened the closer they got and the longer they stayed that way.

He knew what she wanted, and that she wanted it as badly as he did, but at the same time, he wanted to show her, no matter how long it's been, no matter how much he craved her, he could still sit with her and just enjoy being with her. He was that kind of guy who had self control over such things, at the absolute least for a while. Right now, he was just lost in this quiet moment with her.

Gently pushing a stray strand of red hair from her face so he could see her better, he took note of each facial feature. His eyes scanned her small nose, her deep emerald green eyes, her delicate jaw line, and those succulent full pink lips. He hooked a finger under her chin, and gently raised her face up to look at him before he leant in, capturing her lips with his own for the second time that night. He didn't have to ask for entrance to her mouth this time, she willingly offered it, allowing the metal of her tongue ring to glide over his own tongue.

With his teeth and mouth freshly cleaned, she could taste the cool mint Listerine mouth wash he had used, but more than that, his mouth tasted like orange sherbet – where did he get orange sherbet? – The thought quickly left her mind as he guided her backwards on the bed, until she was lying down and he was on top of her. That's when she became aware of something pressing against her leg. She broke the kiss again, "do you have one?"

He knew what she was talking about; reaching over to the night table he opened the drawer and pulled out a condom. He was going to put it on, until she stopped him. His eyes reflected his confusion, so she leaned up to his ear and whispered "there's something else I want to try first." She gently loosened his grip on the prophylactic, placing it on top of the night table, and then she gently ran her hands over his pecs, his abdomen, down to the waistband of the black boxers he was wearing. "Hotaru," there was a need in his voice that she had only heard once before. She placed one hand at the center of his chest and gently flipped them so that he was lying on his back, and she was on top. She kissed his lips first, just a quick tantalising peck before starting a trail down south. His breathing was deep and erratic.

When she brushed a hand lightly against the bulge in his boxers, he gave out a noise that was something between a moan and a gasp. She knew he needed it as much as she wanted it. "Ru-ru, what are you going to do?" he desperately asked her, his voice was laced with desire.

"This," she replied as she pulled his boxers down in one fluid motion, and without wasting a second, her lips were wrapped around his engorged cock.

His back arched off of the mattress, his breath hitched in his throat, he thought for a second he was going to shoot his load right there. Hotaru didn't move, she allowed him to adjust to the sensation of her mouth's warmth surrounding him. "Oh god," he finally exclaimed, his hands found their way up to his hair. He buried his fingers into his wavy brown locks trying to distract himself with another sensation. To a degree, it worked, but only at helping him hold off on spilling his seed. Hotaru eyed him from her position, still holding his dick in her mouth. Why did the girls in high school, when she lived in LA, always complain about this? It didn't taste so bad, his flesh kind of tasted sweet actually. It reminded her of honey.

She noticed he was taking deep breaths, likely trying to calm himself down. After about two or three minutes, he rested one hand behind his head, while the other found its way down to Hotaru's head. He didn't push her head down, or place his hand on the back of her head; instead he pushed away another stray strand of hair from her face, wanting to watch her expression the whole time she was down there.

Reading her face, he nodded to indicate she could move without worrying. So, she swirled her tongue around him, the tongue ring pressing against the head in just the right way to drive him crazy, before she moved further down on him.

She knew she wouldn't be able to handle all 8 inches of him without triggering her gag reflex, so she took in what she could. Soon, she was pressing her tongue against half of him, the metal raking up and down as her head bobbed on him. He had given up trying to watch her, his eyes were clenched shut in ecstasy. Deep throaty moans and groans escaped him with each movement she made, his head would thrash from side to side and his back arched every time she ran that blasted tongue ring around the tip.  
"H-Hotaru you've..." he was cut off by a moan he couldn't suppress. It was as if they'd done this before, but he knew they hadn't. "- you've gotta stop. I have to rest for a bit," he choked out. She obeyed pulling him out of her mouth, and climbing up to cuddle next to him for a moment. He was holding his left hand up to his head like he had a headache, his right arm was waiting patiently for her to fall into it. Her concern showed on her face when he looked at her, a reassuring smile from him told her there was nothing to worry about.

"What is it?"

"My head's just swimming after that, like I'm in a haze. I know what'll clear it, but I want to calm down a little first."

Catching her eye, he knew the question she wanted to ask, he brought her lips to his, and kissing her he breathed against her mouth, "I want it to last a while. Right now, I'd lose all control the second I got inside."

She returned his kiss, placing one hand on the side of his face, lovingly caressing his cheek as her lips moved against his. His hands started at her shoulder, then moved down over the fabric of her shirt, halting for a moment at a breast to lightly squeeze it. Then he continued to let his hand wander down, until it reached the hem of the blue t shirt she was wearing. Breaking their lips from each other, he lifted the shirt up over her head, with some assistance from her. He chuckled at the sight of her 'hello kitty' undergarments, which had been a 'birthday gift' from Rukia the last time Hotaru had been to the world of the living.

"Yeah, I know. Ichigo once said she has Chappy the bunny under clothes," Hotaru responded to his chuckle as she scrunched up her face while removing her jeans. What was with the female soul reapers and that silly rabbit anyway?

Chad's facial expression changed to one of curiosity, "How would Ichigo know that?"

Hotaru shrugged, "She does live with him when she's here."

Yasutora replied, "hmm, I wonder if that's all it is. There always seemed to be something between those two."

"Maybe," Hotaru replied, at this moment she didn't really care. She unclasped and removed her bra, followed by the removal of her panties. From the look on Yasutora's face, all thought of Ichigo and Rukia had flown out the window. He looked at the tattoo on her left calf, tracing the design with his fingers. In their passionate fury last time, he hadn't remembered to look for it. It was similar to the tattoo on his left arm except it lacked the snake. They had both gotten their tattoos illegally when they were thirteen, just days before he moved back to Japan after his Abuelo died. When Urahara was designing her gigai, she had insisted that it have that same tattoo, it was one thing that remained from her life when she first arrived in Soul Society. Although at the time, she hadn't understood why.

"Remember that?" She asked, a broad smile on her face, as she felt him trace the words 'Amore e Morte', with her mother being a linguistic specialist, Hotaru was able to translate just about any common or simple phrase into any language. "Love and death" being very simplistic. They had chosen that phrase because his Abuelo and her mother had passed away within a week of each other. His Abuelo to natural causes, while her mother died in childbirth during her brother's delivery.

They had warned Sarah Kobayashi that she was at risk of bleeding out if she had a fourth child due to some internal trauma that had occurred during her pregnancy with Michelle. She had taken the risk anyhow. Hotaru's trip down memory lane was interrupted by his tongue replacing his fingers on her tattoo. She breathed in sharply, gripping the bed sheets as she felt his mouth traveling up her leg, and moving to her inner thigh. She could smell her own arousal at that point, and still he drove her crazy, he then stopped, his mouth just seconds away from her soaking pussy. He seemed a bit nervous, she knew he'd never done this before. Smiling, she ran a finger over his cheek, trying to gently coax him.

He plunged his tongue inside her throbbing, wet womanhood and began moving his tongue in and out, every so often lapping up the juices that flowed from her.

Her eyes were clenched shut, her head trashed with each of his movements, and she kept a death grip on her lower lip to keep from hollering out, which she knew would disturb the neighbours if she did.

He smiled up at her, in spite of himself, and then he got an idea. Moving his arm over from under her left leg, he rubbed her clit. Hotaru couldn't hold back the moans that escaped her mouth, but this just wasn't enough. "Tora please," she whimpered.

"Please what?"

"Please fuck me," she begged, the haze inside her head was becoming too much for her to bear.

He removed himself from his position between her legs, and moved up the mattress, to grab the condom, still in its wrapper. Within a minute, he had opened the package, and properly placed the latex sheath over his erection. He looked over her small frame, last time had been afraid of crushing her under his weight, he was more than a foot taller than her, and easily outweighed her by over 100 pounds. In fact he was double her weight and then another twenty on top of that! Still he had known it was her first time, and thought if he used shallow thrusts and controlled the depth, it would hurt her less. This time, he decided he'd do something different.

He then laid down next to her on his back, one arm coaxing her to climb on top. "Let's try it this way," he suggested, lowering her warmth over his hard on. Both gasped and cried out as he filled her completely, without realising that the gigai had its own barrier seperate from Hotaru's. Her eyes filled with tears for a moment. "Oh no! Hotaru, I'm sorry," he apologized, his own eyes welling up. He hadn't meant to hurt her. "It's alright," she told him, but he knew her better than that.

Yasutora knew from her expression that she'd need a few moments to adjust to him. He pulled her head down to his chest, and gently played with her hair, gently whispering to her in Spanish.

"Nunca pensé que sucedería con alguien que había sabido durante tanto tiempo. Pero hizo. Te amo Hotaru," he cooed to her. (I never thought it could happen with someone I had known for so long. But it did. I love you Hotaru)

"Te amo Yasutora. He tenido un agolpamiento en usted y lo he sabido desde entonces ese día en la playa en México, cuando éramos diez años. Nunca pensé que usted sentía la misma manera," she annunciated each word perfectly, as if she had spoken the language her entire life, but he knew she hadn't. Then what she had said sunk in (I love you Yasutora. I've had a crush on you and known it since that day at the beach in Mexico, when we were ten years old. I never thought you felt the same way).

He looked at her, had she just confessed to discovering she had a crush on him, the same time he had realised he had a crush on her?

"Hotaru, ese día que descargué la agua fría en usted en la playa, yo hizo eso para conseguir su atención. Lo hice porque no podría tomar apenas la observación de usted y no obrar recíprocamente con usted más, sino que no quise compartir su atención. Tenía un agolpamiento en usted también," he confessed to her, now his right hand was resting against the back of her head, his left hand was placed on her lower back, hugging her body to him. (Hotaru, that day at the beach, when I dumped the cold water on you to get your attention. I did it because I couldn't take watching you without talking to you anymore, but I didn't want to share your attention. I had a crush on you.)

She giggled and playfully smacked his arm, looking up into his eyes, she teasingly accused him, "Muchacho tonto." (Silly boy).

She kissed him, allowing her tongue to snake into his mouth, cupping the side of his face with her hand. Then, she began rocking her hips on him. He held her hips and gently guided her up and down his shaft. Already he felt the pressure building inside of him, breaking the kiss, he gritted his teeth and took deep steady breaths trying to hold back his release.

The sensation was driving her wild, this position was even better than the first one they'd used during his visit in Soul Society, she could feel his penis hitting something inside her that sent shivers through her body, and she could feel some kind of heat rising in the pit of her stomach. She arched her back a bit, trying to help him hit that one pleasure button inside over, and over with each thrust. He braced her back with one hand, uncertain of what she was doing, everything about her body read pure ecstasy, but he wasn't going to chance that she'd end up injured. Moans escaped from her mouth, her breathing was becoming erratic.

'_Damn, she's going to push me right over the edge,'_ he thought to himself. He closed his eyes and tried his best to focus on holding back the torrent of cum that threatened to spill from him. He had another chance at proving himself to her as a lover, he wanted so desperately to make her cum this time. The last time they had done this, it was all new to both of them, and the shock of the intense pleasure had been too much for him to hold back.

Removing his left hand from her hip, he began rubbing her swollen nub with his thumb. She gasped, and cried out his name as he did this. _'Shit one more scream like that and I'm done,'_ he thought grudgingly to himself.

She threw her head back, groaning as he continued to hit that sweet spot inside, while playing with her external hot button. "Tora... stop, please," she was a little frightened, she had never felt anything like this before. What was happening to her? Her body began to tremble as the muscle spasm took over. "No, I'm not stopping. Trust me Ru-ru, you'll love this," he muttered his response as soothing as he could. He knew she was close, some kind of instinct inside was screaming at him to continue.

So, he did, keeping the same pace with his trusting and manual stimulation. He kept his eyes on her, watching her expression changing, her face contorting as the pleasure became too much for her. She was right at the edge of that metaphorical cliff, if he could hold out just a little longer.

"Dios Mio... Tora!" she hollered as her orgasm rippled through her, causing her walls to clench down on him even tighter than they had been. (My god, Tora!)

He couldn't hold back anymore, letting his release flow into the prophylactic he screamed, "Hotaru, dios! Ah, cogida!" (Hotaru, god! Ah, fuck!)

Hotaru's eyes snapped open at that last word and she giggled a bit. She had never heard him swear before, in any language. He was always so soft spoken and gentle. She liked that she could unleash some of that animal inside.

Slowly they came down from their high, still in each other's arms, he kissed her sweaty forehead as he pulled out of her. Yasutora removed the used condom and tossed it into the nearby garbage pile, never taking his eyes off the pale goddess in his arms.


	7. Yasutora's thoughts and a dream

_Thirteen-year-old Hotaru laid face down on the table, her head buried in her arms as Yasutora held her right hand with his left. He gently used his right hand to play with her feather like hair. Hotaru's cousin, who was a tattoo artist, was working on her calf. "Hotaru, I've seen grown men scream by now, you're doing really good," her cousin's gruff voice assured her, praising her bravery through the process. _

_Hotaru shot a smile at Yasutora, a smile which concealed the physical pain she was feeling from the body art being done on her calf. They all knew that her cousin could get in trouble for what he was doing for them, but Hotaru had him wrapped around her finger. If she wanted something, she'd find Sean, bat her eye lashes at him, give her sad pout, and the sad eyes to go with it, and ask for a favour from her 'most favourite cousin ever in the whole wide world'. _

_Sean would hmm and ha and then give in to her request. Sarah Kobayashi had obtained custody of her nephew after domestic violence claimed the life of his mother, at the hands of Sarah's brother. She had refused to attend the court proceedings only releasing the public statement, "it's a sad thing indeed, when marital problems result in violence. No one wins. I wish my sister-in-law had walked away from my brother. At least then their son would still have a parent worth respecting."_

_Despite his hardships, Sean hadn't done too badly for himself. He did body art to help himself through college and planned to start a career in web design and computer engineering. "Almost done kid," Sean stated, coaxing her to remain calm. "I'm not a 'kid'," Hotaru protested. A smile spread across her cousin's face. He put the finishing touches on the words 'Amore e Morte'. "Funny you'd chose Italian," Sean observed. His mother had been Italian. _

"_Yeah well, we wanted a romantic language that wasn't Spanish, and French was too cliché," Hotaru replied. Yasutora watched as Sean's eye brow cocked at his little cousin's reasoning. "Really? Romantic language huh?"_

"_No we're not dating Sean, so don't even go there," Hotaru snapped at him. _

_Yasutora kept his eyes on her, she was a little fireball, fearless, and always on her toes, silently he thought to himself 'not that we're not dating because I don't want to. It wouldn't work right now. I'm going back to Japan, she's moving to Los Angeles to be closer to her mom's side of the family while her dad works That's why 'Love and death'... because that's what my life is.' _

Yasutora's eyes opened to the darkness of his room, he shifted slightly until he realised there was someone next to him. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and there he could make out Hotaru's features.

Her nose, and her jaw line, surrounded by a mass of fiery red hair, some of which had fallen into her face yet again. Her pale skin shone as the moon light fell on her through the window. Her emerald eyes were closed, her eyelids were fluttering rapidly, and she had one arm resting on his chest. She was in a deep sleep. He laid in bed watching her sleep for a moment, taking in her beauty, wondering to _himself 'why did all of this have to happen before I had the courage to tell you Ru-ru?'_

A lot had happened in the time they knew each other, his parents dying, Hotaru's mother dying, Hotaru's family moving to Los Angeles from Mexico while he returned to Japan. Then there was the event that turned the tides completely, Hotaru's death on August 7th, three years ago. She had died at the age of 14, rescuing her three younger siblings from a house fire.

The official cause of death from the news articles they had found was 'smoke inhalation', and yet he knew, if she were alive again and forced to make a choice like that once more, she'd make the same decision. That's just the kind of person she was. She amazed him. She could be ferociously aggressive, but that aggressiveness came from a desire to protect those around her, he knew that's what made her such an exceptional soul reaper. It came as naturally to her as breathing. He pushed the stray hair out of her face, and immediately wished he hadn't. As he touched her, she stirred a bit and mumbled in her sleep. Something about Pistachios, was she dreaming about food?

He smiled, that was so Hotaru. She had often said that when she was older she'd either be a daycare teacher, an artist, or a professional chef. He couldn't ignore the reason for his awakening anymore, removing the pillow from behind his head, he quickly replaced his own body with said pillow before heading off to the washroom.

When he returned to bed, Hotaru had the beside lamp on, and was lying on her side with one arm propping her head up. "I probably should go back to the Soul Society tomorrow. Hand in my resignation and request their blessing to live here for the remainder of however long I can live," Hotaru informed him of her plans.

"You are coming back though?"

She smiled, "Why wouldn't I?"

He shrugged, climbing back in next to her, he laid on his side, facing her. "Are you sure, mi amor?"

"Am I sure that I want to be free to be with you without worrying about penalty of death? Yes."

"You'd be giving up so much though,"

"I'd also be gaining a lot," she replied.

He worried about her, and then he remembered something from his last trip to the Soul Society; Captain Hitsugaya had found them on the floor of the Squad 10 Barracks the morning after their first intimate experience together. He relaxed, smiling to himself a bit. Hotaru may have only been a soul reaper for three years, but she had friends in high places. He knew then that she'd be safe on the return journey. He felt her curling up into him again, he watched as she drifted peacefully back into a blissful sleep, smiling to himself, he turned off the lamp, bringing his head close to hers, he kissed her temple and relaxed back into a slumber.

The next day, Ichigo sat with Chad on a rock in the training room in front of the Pathway to the Soul Society that Urahara had made. It had been a few hours now, and Hotaru had told them to expect her back that day, if all had gone well. Yoruichi joined them when they didn't return to the main floor of the shop for two hours. "No word?" she inquired of the two teenage men. Both shook their heads 'no'.

Just as they did, the old fashioned sliding screen door appeared, both rose to their feet, expecting to see a lover, or a friend walking through, instead it was a single hell butterfly which landed on Yoruichi's finger. Her yellow eyes grew wide as she received the message it carried. "What is it?" Ichigo asked.

"It was from Captain Hitsugaya... he sent that hell butterfly illegally, to notify us that Captain-Commander Yamamoto dismissed Hotaru's resignation, branded her a traitor and has asked for sentencing from central 46," Yoruichi replied.


	8. A realisation about Yamamoto

Both teenagers now stood gawking at her, wide eyed. This was all too similar to what had happened to Rukia and that had begun a war.

"However, Captain Hitsugaya does intend to speak on her behalf, and delay any sentence to be carried out for as long as he can. He wants us to break into the Seireitei once more, and help Hotaru escape. He said Captains Kuchiki, Soifon, Kyoraku and Ukitake are also in on the stalling tactics, as well as willing to offer any under the table assistance as is possible," Yoruichi continued.

"Why would he go to such lengths to help Hotaru if she's viewed as a traitor?" Ichigo wondered.

"She's his Lieutenant. I'm sure he knows her better than most in the Soul Society. Captain Hitsugaya has always been like that. He has to know the people in his squad, he has to be able to say openly that he trusts them with his life," Yoruichi answered.

"He knows her secret," Chad revealed.

"What?" Yoruichi's eyes were wide once again.

"He knows. We hooked up once in the soul society. On Christmas Eve, he found us the next morning," Yasutora explained.

Yoruichi narrowed her gaze, "then that fully explains it. He knows that this isn't a risk of imprisonment penalty, this is under penalty of death, and he already lost Matsumoto for all intents and purposes."

"He keeps saying she's dead," Ichigo interrupted.

"She isn't technically dead, though death would be more merciful. The only things she can be bothered to do these days is drink sake, expel the sake, and sleep off the sake. After Gin Ichimaru's flip flop between sides during the Winter War, and then his death... she snapped. She's no longer the Rangiku Matsumoto any of us knew," Yasutora blurted out what Hotaru had told him. Normall, he wouldn't, but this wasn't a normal situation. At least it wouldn't be for most people.

"Then these Captains, if they know the truth about her, are risking their own lives to save hers," Yoruichi informed them.

"Again, why would they do that?"

"She must've made an impression on them," Yoruichi suggested.

Chad nodded, that certainly did sound typical of her. She was always impressing people with her observational skills, her kindness, her willingness to assist others. Things that he knew Toshiro Hitsugaya valued in his soldiers. That would probably be the reason why she was in the tenth squad. "So Hitsugaya's planning a rescue?" Ichigo inquired

Yoruichi nodded in response, "he's requested our assistance, to make sure that her journey back here where she can live in exile but remain alive. He called her a friend. I wonder how that happened."

"A friend? Hmm, didn't think him the type, he always seems so cold." Ichigo blurted.

Yoruichi shot him a disapproving glare. "Toshiro Hitsugaya puts on a cold persona in order to maintain rank over his squadron. But in truth he's one of the most approachable Captains in the Soul Society. Bested only by Kyoraku and Ukitake."

"Huh, wouldn't have guessed."

After training for a while, the group of friends entered the Soul Society, however Chad had gotten separated from the others. They intended to follow the plan of Captain Hitsugaya, they were to just show up for the punishment to be carried out, which was the sealing of Hotaru's Soul Reaper abilities which would force her to remain in the soul society. Hitsugaya had planned to attack the day of the sentencing, what's more, he planned to take on Captain-Commander Yamamoto himself. Now they waited at the ready mixed strategically in the crowds.

Rukia felt her stomach flip constantly with concern as she watched from her position. she knew that Hotaru, no matter how weakened, would do whatever she could to protect her friends and her Captain._ 'For once Hotaru, let us look after you,' _Rukia silently prayed. The punishment was about to begin, as soon as Hotaru was in sight, that's when the ruckus began.

"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyorinmaru," Hitsugaya called out, releasing his Zanpakuto. Yoruichi exited her cat form and using Shunko began attacking the nearest guards, knocking them down with one hit each.

"Scatter Senbonzakura," Came Byakuya's voice.

"Sting all enemies to death, Suzumebachi," Soifon's voice found Hotaru's ears.

Captain Soifon's voice was followed by Rukia's, "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki."

"Howl, Zabimaru!"

Hotaru was horrified hearing all of these voices cry out, she knew what they were doing, and it caused tears to form in her eyes. She could never remember so many people caring about her. She knew she had friends, but thought they were just friends in passing, people to talk to and hang out with. She never thought... why would they risk their lives and their rank for her? She was about to shout out to all of them, through the blaze of ice, cherry blossoms, snow and blades when another voice startled her out of her stupor, "Getsuga Tenshou!"

Air froze in her lungs, she was unable to inhale or exhale for a moment as the meaning of what she had just heard sunk in. Then Ichigo and Uryuu were at either side of her. Rukia and Renji moved in to form a protective perimeter around Hotaru. "What are you doing? Do you know how dangerous this is? You could all be killed," Hotaru raved, she couldn't believe anyone, never mind this many people, would be so very careless as to risk their lives for her.

"Shut up Shortcake, I told you last year that I'd go up against every Espada in Hueco Mundo, and every Captain in the Soul Society to get you back if anything happened to you. You're important to Chad, and because of that, I'm sworn to protect you. Like it or not, we're here to rescue you. We're going to whether you wanted it or not. So just stand there and look grateful for a bit," Ichigo smirked.

"You were able to help my kido skill more than any instructor in the Academy that I had," Renji added.

"Improved my hand to hand combat," Rukia stated.

"Shinigami might be my enemy, but you're not all that bad. Besides I'm sworn by the pride of the Quincy to exact justice on anyone who mistreats a woman," Uryuu added.

At the center of the four friends, Hotaru blushed violently and Uryuu's statement sent rage through her veins._ 'You're going to exact justice on Captain-Commander Yamamoto? Good friggin' luck idiot,' _was her only thought of Uryuu at that moment. For some reason she couldn't explain, she could still sense her spiritual pressure building rapidly. She knew it was unusual for anyone being held within the Seki Seki stone to regain their spiritual pressure any quicker than in a matter of months. Rukia herself had needed nearly six months to fully regain her spiritual pressure after being imprisoned for only a month. Then catching the eye of the Captain-Commander, a look that he was directing to her was all too familiar. She began to wonder where she had last seen that look.

Off in the distance, Chad could hear and see that the combat had begun, however patrols not at the sentencing were in his way of getting there, he could use his power to blast his way through, but he didn't want to risk drawing out a Captain. 'I wish I could be cat just one more time,' he thought to himself, eyes closed. He then reopened his eyes and noticed he was closer to the ground than he had been a moment ago, looking at his hand, he saw a fur covered paw. He was back to being a tortie cat. _'That's useful,'_ he thought as he started running towards Hotaru's location. _'I'm coming to get you home Ru-ru,'_ he vowed inwardly, only to be picked up by a patrolling Shinigami. "What's a little mongrel like you doin' here?"

The cat growled at the word 'mongrel'. Really, Mongrel? He knew he was biracial as a human, but was he a mixed breed cat as well? He had no idea, he just thought the word was disrespectful.

"What are you doing to that cat?" A voice demanded. The Shinigami turned to find a short young woman, who appeared to be in her early teens, with jet black hair and warm brown eyes. Her face however, wore a scowl that could strike fear into the strongest of men. Yasutora recognized her, though he had to admit it looked as though she had both matured and toughened up since he had seen her last.

"Captain Hinamori," The Shinigami greeted her, "I found an intruder in the Seireitei," he displayed the visibly irritated cat. The feline seemed to be pleading for her to rescue him.

"Congratulations, you found my Hunter," She stated, taking the cat from the over bearing Shinigami. The back of Yasutora's neck was aching and he wondered if that oaf had ever held a cat in his life. The raven-haired young female Captain then turned and headed towards where she knew Hotaru would be. Once she was at a safe distance she began using flash step to quicken their journey.

"You're here for Lieutenant Kobayashi aren't you Sado?" she asked suddenly.

"How did you know and weren't you a Lieutenant?"

Momo nodded her head 'yes' and replied, "I visited Hotaru while she was imprisoned, she worried that you and the others would try to come for her, so she described what your possible cat form would be, if you retained the ability to shape shift after the kido spell she performed. I was injured in the winter war, but as soon as I awoke again, they named me the fifth squad Captain."

"She knew this was possible?"

"Anything was possible, because Yoruichi is already able to shape shift, she wasn't sure if you'd retain the ability."

"Why didn't she say anything?"

"She didn't figure it out until she was imprisoned," Hinamori replied. They reached their intended destination, and she released the cat from her hold. Drawing her own Zanpakuto to assist her friends who were fending off the other Captains from getting to Hotaru, she told Yasutora to join his friends.

"Snap Tobiume," She recited the release command of her Zanpakuto as she charged into the center of the battle.

"Enough," Yamamoto's voice cut through the disturbance. The others watched as he released his own Zanpakuto. Everyone in the near vicinity was soon feeling faint, his spiritual pressure was unlike anything else.

"You will be punished for your inappropriate behaviour Hotaru Kobayashi," Yamamoto stated as he approached her.

Ichigo edged closer to her, though he felt a bit dizzy, "I won't let you touch her. I'll cut you," Ichigo muttered having meant to holler at the old man. Suddenly a shield popped up infront of him, his brown eyes widened until they nearly popped from their sockets, he turned to see that the shield had come from Hotaru's kido ability. How was she able to use Kido so soon after being held within the Seki seki stone? Rukia had barely been able to move, and yet she was here using her Shinigami powers to protect him from fainting. She truly was exceptionally powerful and he had the feeling she was always concealing a portion of her spiritual pressure.

"Ichigo, stop it. You've done more than I ever would've thought possible. Whatever strength you have left, take the others and get them out of here," Hotaru requested of him.

"But Hotaru..."

"Please. Trust me on this," Hotaru gave him a confident nod of her head, to indicate she knew what she was doing. Ichigo nodded his agreement, grabbing Rukia and Uryuu as they were closest, he took off.

Ukitake and Kyoraku joined Hotaru's side insisting they'd fight with her. Hotaru thanked them for their offer, but insisted she had no intention of fighting the Captain-Commander. Instead she boldly stepped forward and inquired, "Why is it that Central 46 has not been heard from in regards Captain Hitsugaya's request when I first departed to the human world? The request to remove the very law I am accused of breaking? Is it still a law?"

"Disobedient children should be punished," Yamamoto replied.

Hotaru chuckled at the statement. She had realised something, that look that Yamamoto had been giving her earlier was similar to the same look she saw from her father and grandfather when she disobeyed them as a child. She had discovered why she was infact so powerful, why the Academy was a breeze for her and why despite being advanced four times in a row, she remained at the top of her class, lacking only in Zanjutsu which her mission with Renji Abarai had resolved.

Looking up, she caught Yamamoto's eye and then staring at him she replied, "If that's true you should share in my punishment, right here and now. Unless my senses deceive me quite considerably, you're my ancestor."


	9. the reasons

Yamamoto's facial expression remained unchanged, except for a very slight variation in his eyes. Hotaru knew better than to look for an enormous reaction, she knew it would be subtle, almost to the point of overlooking his reaction.

She knew how much the Seireitei meant to him, he had risked his life and the lives of all those who follow him to try to defeat Aizen in the winter war, she knew all of that. She had approached him before they departed for Karakura town, asking if she could go with them.

'Absolutely out of the question' had been his answer.

Hotaru had argued, saying that some of the friends she had made were of Captain Rank and they had no choice but to go fight, she didn't want her friends to die without being there. Even if she went as a substitute member of Squad four and just healed injuries, at least she'd be there alongside her friends where she felt she belonged. Yamamoto simply stated that he refused to repeat himself. Frustrated she had left, running into Hitsugaya on her way back to the academy, tears streaming down her face. He had asked her what was wrong, she had revealed that she felt like the Academy wasn't much of a challenge, like she was destined to do something unprecedented in the Soul Society. She was too powerful to even feign being average. She wasn't trying at her full potential and she was at the top of the class despite Yamamoto having advanced her twice that year. She felt like she could really level the playing field against Aizen, but she wasn't allowed to, and because she wasn't allowed to and didn't know why Yamamoto wouldn't permit it, she was frustrated.

Hitsugaya had promised to look into the Captain-Commander's past, secretly and if he found anything he'd let her know. That had been nearly two years ago, and then just last week, he had approached her in the penance tower, handed her a letter, and walked away without saying a word. When she had opened the letter, it had read:

_Dear Kobayashi,_

_As per the promise I made during the winter war, I have been looking into the Captain-Commander's past, what I have to say will shock you, but please know that this is the truth to the best of what I was able to gather: _

_It is no secret that __Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto founded the Shinigami Academy 2100 years ago, what isn't widely known is that before being named the Captain-Commander, he attended one mission to the world of the living 135 years after founding the academy. His assignment was to protect a woman named Hotaru Kobayashi, one of your ancestors, who was frequently attracting Hollows, he discovered she had spiritual pressure and taught her to conceal it quite well ending the frequent attacks. _

_His mission away lasted for nearly a year, in that time, Kobayashi gave birth to a child that she named Shigenkuni Kobayashi, an ancestor of yours. This event is spanning to 20 generations prior to your existence._

_The reason Yamamoto would not permit you to join us in the winter war, and why he is so strict with you while showing some leniency is because you are the first of his descendants to show promising Shinigami powers. He hopes you will take over for him as Captain-Commander someday. However, since you've begun to repeat what he views to be a mistake on his part, a mistake he was never punished for, he intends to wait until one of your siblings show up hoping that they will be as promising and more worthy of the position he has held for over a millennia. I hope this brings you some ease, and wisdom as to why these actions are being taken against you. I promised to protect you as your Captain, and I swear to you I still will. _

_Sincerest regards._

Upon first reading the letter, Hotaru had scoffed at the idea. The very thought that the Captain-Commander could do such a reckless thing as create a human-Shinigami child with one of her ancestors, yet the more she thought about it, the more it began to make sense. Her immense spiritual pressure, she had always been able to conceal it, but she knew if she ever lost full control of her emotions, her spiritual pressure alone would be enough to kill a few people. Hitsugaya had even commented a few times that her spiritual pressure was closer to Captain Level than Lieutenant Level. She hadn't denied that observation, and in fact had thought to herself _"even Zaraki doesn't have a hope in hell against me if I ever lose control of my spiritual pressure. I hope I never lose control, I could destroy a planet."_

Now she looked at the man she knew to be the cause of her surprising power, the reason why she excelled at kido, flash step, and martial arts, and the reason why her nightmares terrified her so much. It wasn't the nightmares alone that scared her; it was the idea of losing control of her spiritual pressure as she slept that terrified her.

Hitsugaya had handled this by strengthening his own Kido skill to the point of being able to erect a barrier around her room while she slept, along with Momo Hinamori who would further strengthen the spell with one of her own. "Why did you just call the Captain-Commander your Ancestor?" Ukitake asked Hotaru.

"Because he is, aren't you Yamamoto-sensei?"

He remained silent; his eyes fixed on her, his spiritual pressure began to manifest its self as fire engulfing his surroundings. She effortlessly moved forward, she remained conscious, not even breaking a sweat. Jushiro and Shunsui watched as if in a trance, captivated by the one girl in the Seireitei who seemed to be completely unaffected by Yamamoto's spiritual pressure. "Your spiritual pressure is still higher than my own, Yamamoto; I make no argument of that. But it's no different for me than a hot smoggy day in the world of the living," she revealed, taking a firm stance before him.

"Captain Ukitake and Captain Kyoraku you may wish to leave this area. It's about to get very difficult to breathe," She warned them.

"Hotaru," Ukitake attempted to object, but he couldn't form a proper argument, with the amount of spiritual pressure she was putting out to counter Yamamoto's he was starting to find it difficult to speak.

"Jushiro, get out of here, I'll stay nearby but at a safe range," Shunsui suggested. Jushiro nodded in agreement and flash stepped away. "I'll be at the other side of the mountain Hotaru," Shunsui informed her.

She smiled, "Take Abarai with you, and don't worry."

Shunsui voiced his agreement to take Renji with him. After he left, she turned her attention back to the ancient man before her.

"You knew who I was as soon as you heard my name, didn't you?"

"Yes," he replied.

"That's why you wouldn't let me fight in the winter war," Hotaru continued.

The old man nodded, his eyes still fixed on her. He knew she was powerful, but he wanted to protect her, reduce any risk of her being injured, fatally or otherwise.

"So tell me, Captain-Commander... why is it such a crime that I ask only for a few land of the living decades away from here, when you did something that had a ripple effect over 20 generations?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Back then, it was illegal for a woman to bear a child without a father. Hotaru Kobayashi was executed, and the only thing that saved her son was her parents escaping with him to another part of Japan. Since then my family has held a grave dishonour that we kept to ourselves. Thankfully the grandfather of your son was a military general, and reclaimed a portion of that honour," Hotaru informed him.

She paused for a moment, observing his reaction before continuing, "However, you were young back then. Young adults and the like are usually reckless and impulsive. After that incident however, you enacted the law about Shinigami mixing with humans. That's why you banished Isshin Kurosaki. He had begun to feel too attached to the human world. However, since I'm one of your descendants, I face a harsher sentence because you, yourself were never punished. Although you're the Captain-Commander and whatever you say goes, you seem to feel that if I face a harsher sentence than Kurosaki you somehow absolve yourself in the process."

"Your observation of others is quite the gift Hotaru, just like your name sake."

"There's something else about me being your descendant, something that hasn't made much sense until now. I retained every memory, although they were originally a bit fragmented, when I came to the Soul Society. I never understood why, but I suppose now the question becomes: Did I retain my memories because I had shared unexpressed feelings with a friend I had to leave behind? Or did I retain those memories because I was never fully human?"

"It would be a bit of both. When word reached my ears about someone retaining their memories, I thought it was you, though I could not get anyone to confirm this."

"That's because I wanted to figure it out for myself, Captain-Commander. Those who knew my secret knew that bit as well."

"There's a question or request in all of this, isn't there Lieutenant?"

"There is; I would like to know why it is such a crime for me to request a few decades in the human world to be with my friends. You can put the full restriction on my power if you feel it necessary. You can also look at this way; a decade to the living world is equal to one year of a Shinigami's life span. How is that such a horrible crime? I'd only be gone long enough for the others to age by no more than by four or five years. Does that warrant sealing my powers and revoking my ability to assist my friends? You could think of me as an earth bound representative of the Seireitei, and when I return, if your wish is for me to take over the Gotei 13, I will. However, if you deny me this request I will refuse and there's no guarantee that Kira, Michelle or Joseph possess any Shinigami powers."

Yamamoto remained silent for a moment, before he concealed his spiritual pressure once more, "Alright. Four human decades and no longer than that, also when you leave make your disappearance appear to be a death."

Hotaru nodded in agreement, "from this moment on, I will represent the Seireitei and maintain vigilant over Karakura Town. Thank you, Captain-Commander," she replied, bowing slightly before turning to leave.

"Lieutenant, one more thing," he called to her. She turned, her scarlet hair blowing freely in the breeze as her green eyes fixed onto his red eyes. "I'll revoke the law that I instated regarding humans and Shinigami."

Hotaru smiled at him, "no one should have to carry guilt as long as you did, Captain-Commander. I have to admit; knowing that tiny fault about you makes your strictness far more tolerable. I can understand where you come from now, before it was a complete mystery."

His eyes softened at her words, and he nodded in her direction, she knew that was as close as she'd ever get to an affectionate act from her ancestor.


	10. The secret pact

"You're never going to say why he let you go without a scratch are you?" Rukia inquired, her eyes were ready to bust out of her skull she was blinking an obscene amount. They had returned to the land of the living just three days ago, and Hotaru was refusing to speak of why Yamamoto was so strict with all of his subordinates except her, or why Yamamoto was going to seal her powers, or why Yamamoto had changed his mind when it was just him and Hotaru face to face.

Hotaru simply shook her head 'no', and calmly took a sip of her pomegranate juice. "Ugh!" exclaimed Ichigo. He had been curious himself. He had enough spiritual pressure to be mistaken for a Captain a few times, and during the winter war an Espada had commented on how his spiritual pressure was similar to theirs. Yet even he had a found it difficult to move in Yamamoto's presence with his spiritual pressure pumping out. It had been enough to knock out all of the other Captains and Lieutenants, yet Hotaru, Ukitake and Kyoraku had remained conscious. Though eventually Ukitake had to move away grabbing what few Shinigami he could and move them. Kyoraku had done the same.

Chad had returned to his human form again once he and Hotaru had returned to his apartment, and currently sat in the cafe along with the others. He had been uncertain if he would shape shift into a naked human form again, and as such had waited until he was alone with Hotaru and some nearby clothes that would fit before attempting to transform back into his human form. He had been right. He had then vowed to Hotaru that he would never wear a yellow shirt and transform. She had giggled at him for making that promise, but at the same time she had thought it sweet of him. Yellow was her favourite colour on him.

Now they sat in the living room, on their backs opposite each other playfully leg wrestling, he was holding back considerably. Hotaru was giggling like a school girl, without a care in the world. He hadn't seen her like that since before her mother died.

"Ru?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did Yamamoto let you go?"

"He didn't exactly let me go. I swore not to speak of it to other Shinigami unless I was going to amend the agreement, but you're human, so I should be alright to tell you."

His legs stopped moving, he sat up and gave his full attention to her, "the thing is-" her voice began to catch and squeak a bit. She had yet to speak of this to anyone, and the mere idea of speaking of it made it seem more real. "Thing is, I'm related to Yamamoto. Remember how my paternal grandparents who were a direct blood line to the Kobayashi name seemed to have abnormally long lives?"

He nodded.

"Well, that's because we've been only part human all this time," Hotaru took a deep breath before continuing.

"Over a thousand years ago, Yamamoto was sent to this world on a mission from the Soul King. A woman named Hotaru Kobayashi had been attacked by multiple hollows but they could never kill her. Yamamoto was sent to find out why. He wound up having a child with her, thus beginning the Kobayashi blood line of freaks."

Chad blinked, she had just referred to herself as a 'freak'? She had never done that before.

Then she continued, "And the best part is that Hotaru was killed by the villagers for witchcraft due to the fact that she had a child out of wedlock and had never been seen with a man whom she wasn't related to. During the witch hunts many Kobayashis were killed by throwing them off of cliffs because burning them at the stake did nothing. Those of us with any degree of spiritual power have always been resistant to fire. The Captain-Commander is an old man, he wants to retire, and to do that he needs an heir. So when I showed up with my resignation, Yamamoto was going to seal my power to keep me in the Soul Society against my will so I couldn't be with you. It's illegal for a ranking officer of the Gotei 13 to create an offspring with a human, unless said ranking officer is exiled, yet he himself was never punished despite being a Lieutenant at the time."

Now Chad's eyes were wide, "So are you exiled?"

Hotaru shook her head 'no' before replying, "I said I'd return in four decades. He left the agreement so I could amend it as I see fit. The agreement is once I return, I become the Captain-Commander, but I told him I wouldn't do it without having the same length of vacation time that most other soul reapers get. So Technically I'm on vacation for forty years, and then I get to work like a dog for nine centuries," she joked with the last bit, but her eyes reflected a hidden hesitation. She didn't really want to take command, but if that was the price that she had to pay to spend time with him, she would.

"The other thing is that when I leave, I of course have to make it look like I died," Hotaru concluded.

Yasutora's eyes were wide, how would that work?

"I'm thinking heart attack or something," Hotaru answered his unasked question with a slight laugh.

"I can go to Hawaii and learn to surf, I can teach preschool... maybe I can even be a mom someday," She looked as if she was staring off in the distance, at the far off horizon. For the first time since she had entered the soul society, the possibilities for her seemed endless and the best part was, she could chose her own destiny while she was in this world.

Yasutora kissed her to break her out of the trance.

"Let's go to the other room," he suggested, running a thumb over her cheek.

Hotaru gave him a confused look, "It's just dusk out. Why would we-" realisation dawned on her. "Oh, okay."

He picked her up bridal style and carried her into the bedroom.


	11. After forty years

~~ Forty Years Later ~~

Hotaru looked over the family she'd created with Yasutora. She had lived out her dream of becoming a preschool teacher, while Yasutora became a well known musician. He had been diagnosed recently with late stage cancer and given a few months. Hotaru decided now was as good a time as any to plan her return to the soul society.

Their youngest child, Ayame had just graduated University with her Ph.D in veterinary medicine. Like her father, Ayame had a soft spot for small animals. Ayame reminded Hotaru of her youngest sister, Michelle. Ayame had Michelle's raven locks and deep brown eyes with her father's bronzed skin tone.

Hotaru then looked to her eldest, Yuichi who had just become a parent himself, he looked a fair bit like Yasutora, but Hotaru could see some of her brother in her son. He had his uncle's red eyes, until she found out about Yamamoto, Hotaru had never known where her brother had gotten those eyes from. His son, Akira was three months old and mainly resembled Yasutora. Yuichi shared his father's love of music, turning that love into his career as music producer.

Then there was her middle child, Tama who had taken her mother's path but selected a different path. Tama had gone to University to become a junior high school teacher and had just married her University sweetheart that summer. Tama was the one who looked an even combination of Hotaru and Yasutora. Her wavy brown locks fell down to her shoulders, while her emerald eyes sparkled vibrantly.

Her heart sunk in sadness knowing soon she'd have to leave, and never return to the world of the living but at the same time, she had the chance to live the life that had been cut short so many years ago. She and Chad were going to go to Urahara's shop, she'd leave her Gigai with Urahara's assistance, and they'd say she died of natural causes, Chad would refuse an autopsy, and they'd hold a funeral with the Gigai.

Soon the dinner was over, the couple said goodbye to their children at the door. "Mom, are you okay?" Tama asked after hugging Hotaru.

Hotaru nodded, forcing a smile to her face, "I'm fine Tama."

Tama gave her mother a skeptical look, "If there is something going on you do know that you can call anytime, right?"

Hotaru nodded again, "I know dear."

Tama didn't seem fully satisfied but she nodded and left the house. Hotaru then turned to Yasutora, his hair had bits of grey through it, as did hers. He lovingly embraced her, "You scared?"

"A little. I mean you're sick, I should be here."

Yasutora shook his head, "The way this thing's spread, Uryu doesn't think I'll last more than two months. If even that, and you do have that promise to fulfill."

Hotaru's shoulders sagged, but she nodded. Yasutora hooked a finger under her chin, bringing his face down to meet hers, then he tenderly his lips pressed against hers. At that instant, Hotaru was reminded of their first kiss.

_"I know. Truth is... I was very willing to give my life to protect my siblings, but I wasn't completely ready to go. I had things I wanted to do," Hotaru admitted._

_Yasutora kept looking forward, "Like what?"_

_Hotaru laughed, some of this was going to sound so silly, if not all of it. Composing herself, she unloaded the unfulfilled dreams, "I wanted to join the high school basketball team. I wanted to graduate, and teach preschool. I wanted to vacation in Hawaii and learn how to surf. I wanted to be a mom someday. Before that, I just wanted to kiss someone..."_

_"You mean you were never kissed?"_

_She shook my head 'no', she couldn't stop herself from crying a bit. She had loved her family, and still did, as long as they were safe her sacrifice was a worthy one. All the same, being ripped from life before you're ready to go was painful. Maybe that's why all of the others couldn't remember their past lives, to spare them that pain, it was horrible. She'd rather take a whipping from Renji's Zabimaru than experience the pain she currently felt._

_Yasutora looked like he was deep in thought about something. She was about to ask when he turned to her, and with one finger hooked under her chin, he brought his lips to meet hers, and pressed his lips against them. She was shocked at first, then she kind of melted into it, pressing her lips against his, with a hand resting on his shoulder. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like minutes. When we pulled away, he was blushing, she knew she was too. "There's one item off the list," he said._

Yasutora pulled back from the kiss, one hand placed gently on the side of Hotaru's face, he smiled at his wife.

Hotaru then thought to herself, 'this isn't so bad. I had the chance to attend Karakura high school, and join their basket-ball team. I went to college and became a preschool teacher. We got married, our honeymoon had been in Hawaii where we both learned to surf. I have three beautiful children, and they're starting their adult lives. I've been kissed thousands of times over, and soon Yasutora would be departing this world for the soul society himself. It's time.'

"Let's go see Kisuke," Hotaru suggested.

Yasutora nodded grabbing his coat and keys as they exited their home.

They walked hand in hand to Urahara's candy shop. Kisuke had been waiting for them. "Hotaru, are you ready?"

Hotaru swallowed slightly, but nodded. Before the end of his cane met her head, she had one last request, "Keep an eye on my family Kisuke?"

Kisuke's grey eyes looked to be a mixture of sadness and pleasure as he nodded in agreement, then he pushed the black flaming skull symbol on the bottom of his cane against her forehead, the Gigai fell to the floor, an empty shell.

Hotaru's soul reaper form was left standing, her Lieutenant's badge still on her arm, she still had her dark green scarf which she usually wore around her neck, Suzaku attached at her side. She looked all of eighteen-years-old as a soul reaper due to the fact that she and Tessai had invented a Kido spell to enhance the aging of the gigai separately from her soul.

"I guess, I should go back," Hotaru sighed.

Yasutora placed a hand on her shoulder, she turned back to him for a second, catching his expression.

"I'll see you in a few months," he assured her.

Hotaru smiled, and nodded. She knew he would, or even sooner if he had a bad reaction to the chemotherapy, but she hoped he'd be with their children for a little while yet.

"I promise, I'll be there to perform the konso if you have any issues getting to the soul society," Hotaru replied.

He smiled with a slight nod, "Even if I don't, come and find me. If I don't remember, make me remember."

Hotaru nodded, "I promise Tora."

She thanked Kisuke for all he'd done over the years, before heading down to the training room to create a portal to the soul society for her to go through.

Kisuke looked at the Gigai on the floor of his store, "Well, guess it's time to get this show going."

Yasutora nodded, allowing a few tears to fall as Kisuke called for the ambulance.

Hotaru arrived back in the soul society to find Hitsugaya, Renji, Rukia, and a few other Lieutenants and Captains greeting her.

"Welcome back Kobayashi," Hitsugaya greeted her.

Hotaru's hands flew up in objection, "I haven't gone by Kobayashi for over thirty years. I'm Hotaru Sado."

Renji smirked a bit, "Got hitched huh?"

"Yeah, and had three children. To think, none of that would've happened if you didn't suck at Kido," Hotaru remarked giving him a teasing grin.

Renji grinned back, Hotaru had been like a little sister to him since he found her starving in the 78th district two months after arriving in the soul society. He knew she was grateful for the accident he'd caused, but she'd never say it.


End file.
